Bass went on to a 14-year major league career, hitting .270 with 118 home runs and 611 RBI. He was an all-star outfielder for the 1986 Houston Astros, who lost the National league pennant to the New York Mets in a memorable championship series.
Melvin spent 10 years in the majors, batting .233 with 35 home runs and 212 RBI. He's currently in his eighth year as a major-league manager and has won over 500 games.
Haft has also been around the big leagues for quite a while. You'll see him on the field before games, though he's not in any particular uniform. He's usually in the press box, where he works as the San Francisco Giants beat writer for mlb.com.
Haft is the co-author of "This is Our Time," (Confluence Books, $16.95) the story of the surprising Giants run to the World Series title in 2010. The book is set to be officially released on Monday, July 26, 2011.
The Writer's Road to the Major Leagues
Just as a big-league baseball player spends time in the minor leagues honing his skills, Haft spent time in small towns crafting his gift as a sportswriter.
Haft graduated from Stanford University in 1981, just about the time Bass was making his major league debut with the Houston Astros and Melvin was playing in the Detroit Tigers' minor-league system.
Haft grew up a fan of the San Francisco Giants. He took his obsession one step further and became a sportswriter.
Baseball and Life Lessons
Haft and Bass attended the same high school, Menlo School, in Atherton, CA while Melvin studied and played at nearby Menlo-Atherton High School.
"I was terrible as a player," Haft said. "Just horrible, and you can print that!"
Hanging around with a talented player like Bass had its benefits though. He credits the outfielder for helping him develop an acute sense of what it takes to become one of the best at his profession. He also learned similar lessons from watching Melvin play from the other side of the field.
"It was obvious to me they were the top two athletes in the area," Haft said after a recent Giants' game. "I grew up watching Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, Perry. With Kevin and Bob it was more osmosis; it was how they went about preparing."
A Giants Inspiration
Haft was there when the Giants won the fifth game of the World Series last year in Arlington, Texas. The journey seemed so incredible, Haft immediately thought of a book.
"I was in touch with (co-author) Eric Alan after the season and I told him it was such a great season, it would be neat to write a book about it from different perspectives," Haft said. "We wanted to focus on the team chemistry and our styles meshed well. I was the baseball guy and he's the Zen spiritualist."
The cast of characters ranged from the normal, to the iconic and just plain weird. Phrases such as "Freak," "Fear the Beard," and "Torture" became common around AT&T Park, the place the Giants call home.
"Since I was a conduit for the fans, we go over familiar territory, but we try to get under it at different levels," Haft said. "There's the last day of the season when they clinch, to Tim Lincecum talking about the fifth game of the World Series. We tried to dig a little deeper into the highlights of the season."
Bringing the Legends to Life
The result of Haft's work is a series of stories that entertain as much as they inform. He and Alan explained how team chemistry, an ambivalent, formless term, served the Giants to their improbable run to the top.
Haft and Alan were able, with loving hands and gifted penmanship, to bring it together in such a way that clarified and encompassed the whole of the season as seen through its unique parts.
The book's subtitle tells a story of its own: "The inside story of how the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants became one of baseball's greatest selfless teams: behind beards worth fearing, the Freak and the Machine and a rally thong for the ages, and converting an entire region into true believers."
Haft's Championship Resume
Haft's rapport with the players, developed since he returned to the Bay Area and worked for the San Jose Mercury News in 2005, clearly becomes an asset for the book. He was able to obtain exclusive access to a handful of the pivotal players, who, in turn, shared insight not seen anywhere else.
Haft's first sports writing job out of Stanford was in Twin Falls, Idaho. He's also held journalism jobs in Houston and Cincinnati before coming home. He's covered the Astros, the Reds, the A's and the Giants. He also covered the Cincinnati Bengals for three seasons.
He is scheduled to appear at Keppler's Books in Menlo Park, CA on August 11, 2011, at 7 p.m.
Rick Eymer - I have written for The San Mateo Times, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and am currently working part-time as an assistant sports editor at ...
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